Warrick Taylor, pictured here in 2016, asked to be jailed after causing a fatal crash that year. Photo / ODT
Warrick Taylor, pictured here in 2016, asked to be jailed after causing a fatal crash that year. Photo / ODT
Six years after killing someone in a high-speed crash, an Otago man almost killed himself in a wild police chase through Christchurch.
On June 3, 2016, Warrick Delaney Taylor, 29, was driving his friend’s unwarranted, unregistered car on State Highway 1 south of Waikouaiti when he veered across the centrelineand crashed head-on with 64-year-old Stuart Ernest Windle, who was leading a convoy of vehicles to a car rally.
At his Dunedin District Court sentencing he was jailed for five months on charges of careless driving causing death and three of causing injury.
He had been using alcohol and cannabis regularly during and after the incident, but vowed never to use them again.
The Oamaru District Court recently heard Taylor had not kept his promise.
Road spikes were successfully deployed but Taylor continued on punctured tyres.
Stuart Windle was killed in a head-on collision on State Highway 1 south of Waikouaiti in 2016. Photo / ODT
Finally, he stepped on the brake, generating a 43m-long skid mark while driving through a roundabout, destroying street signs and hitting a tree before coming to a stop.
Taylor was taken to hospital with chest pains where a blood sample was taken, revealing methamphetamine and cannabis in his system.
“You panicked and felt paranoid, going on to make one dangerous mistake after the other,” Judge Dominic Dravitzki said.
“Quite clearly this driving could have hurt or killed you or somebody else. As you know from experience, we would be having a much different conversation at this point.”
Taylor appeared to be genuinely remorseful, he said.
“You were extremely ashamed of yourself and you felt like you had disrespected the person you killed.
“You said that made you feel sick,” Judge Dravitzki said.
It was agreed Taylor was suffering from significant trauma since the 2016 accident.
That accident sparked controversy, as family members of the victim criticised police for not pursuing a more serious charge.
Taylor’s lawyer at the time, Andrew Dawson, expressed his client’s wishes to be sent to jail for what Judge Kevin Phillips called “a tragedy [he] had manufactured”.
Windle’s wife told the court what hurt most was the fact she had been robbed of saying a final goodbye to her husband.
“I’ve been deprived of a life we planned and were looking forward to in retirement.”
At his recent appearance in the Oamaru District Court, on the charges of reckless driving, driving under the influence and aggravated failing to stop for police, Taylor was sentenced to four months’ community detention, 18 months’ intensive supervision and was disqualified from driving for 15 months.
